Counting Days
by kaibasgirlx
Summary: It has been 3 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes since she has been reborn into the new world. Yeul counts time by the flowers that grow beside her home, waiting to be found. Requested by anonymous on tumblr. Noel/Yeul.


Counting Days

_i._

It has been three days.

Yeul crouches down beside the overturned soil, gently pouring water from a glass in swirling motions. She then sits, resting her arms over her knees as she gazes at the homes around her, the endless field of tall grasses swaying gently in the breeze.

It is a world crafted from people's memories, a beautiful world. Her own had been a desolate wasteland, a graveyard for the handful of humanity that remained. She had not known such beauty in her lifetime, only the fleeting images recorded from a time long ago. It is as strange to her as the home she had woken up in, alone and empty, with only the fleeting memory of a warm hand holding hers to drive away the cold.

Yeul glances down at the seeds she has planted and wonders, will he find her before they begin to bloom.

_ii._

Noel does not care for time. Having woken up alone in this strange new world, he is filled with anger and frustration. Five long centuries of waiting desperately to be reunited, and only a few brief moments of happiness is all they were given. He never dreamed life would rip them apart so soon, after everything they went through to see each other once more. It is both infuriating, and at the same time, defeating.

"I'm going to find you," he vows, as he sets off on his journey. He leaves the town he woke up in without a backwards glance, after ascertaining she wasn't there. "I don't care how long I have to look, I'll find you, whatever it takes."

_iii._

Yeul measures her days by the water she pours from a glass onto the small green saplings peeking out from beneath the dark soil. It has been three weeks, and she wonders how many more she will have to endure alone.

It is not that she is afraid to search for him, only that she believes, with every fiber of her being, that he will come for her. Because she is so certain of this, she waits, even as the days stretch on endlessly, the fresh spring air changing into a hot summer drought, with only the occasional precipitation to offer any sort of relief.

_iv._

Noel searches the nearby towns, one after another, in a single-minded determination.

He asks around, questioning those he comes in contact with if they'd seen a girl with long blue hair and jade green eyes (_and a smile that could brighten up the darkest room_). They all respond the same (_"No, haven't seen her." "Are you sure such a person exists?"_) and he is left with nothing but his disappointment, and the waning hope that the next village will bring his search to an end.

_v._

He boards the train, staring unseeingly at the endless fields of grasses, the memory of their promise and the hope for a future fueling his resolve.

_vi._

45 days, and her little saplings are starting to blossom into buds. Yeul fingers the delicate leaves that grow from an even finer stem, their waxy texture and sharp edges filling her with both delight and sadness.

Some days, she is content with sitting and watching her flowers grow. More often than not, she finds the wait long and unbearable. It is the nighttime however, that is worst of them all. Alone in her dreams, she finds herself trapped within the unseen realm, the chaos binding her there. She stares, bitter and helpless, as the souls of humanity move onto the new world, while she is forever locked into a cycle filled with death. Other nights she finds herself reliving the memories of the Yeuls who came before her; pain-filled and lonely lives, clinging to the desperate wish of seeing their guardian again, as her soul leaves to Valhalla, only to be sent back in an infinite loop of reincarnation.

_vii._

Those nights she awakes with a start, the tears already slipping down her cheeks. She tries to stifle the cries that tear at her throat, the anguish of the past suffering priestesses, coupled with her own sorrowful longing, making it a losing battle as she gives in to the racking sobs.

_viii._

Noel is not new to nightmares. In Luxerion, his dreams often taunted him, mocking him with visions of his desires, only for them to evanesce once he got close enough. But in the new world, there is another reality added to this torment, as every step he takes brings with it the nagging apprehension that he will never find her. It haunts him, filling him with anxiety and pushing him forward when he would rather rest, while steadily wearing away at his being.

_i__x._

3 months, 12 weeks, 94 days.

Yeul feels a sense of despair at the yellow chrysanthemums that begin to bloom cheerfully next to her home. She brushes her fingers over the stiff petal tips, her pride in them marred by the knowledge that the one she is waiting for has still not come. More than once she contemplates leaving to search for him, to feel like she is doing something, rather than idling her time. But the fear that he might arrive just as she leaves stills her energy and makes her stay.

She bends over her flowers, clenching her fists as she tries to push down the ache rising up inside her. She has waited five centuries for him, she tries to remind herself. She can wait a little bit longer.

_x._

He scours the village but there is no sign of her. Again she eludes him; again he questions if he will ever find her. Noel rests his head against a post, fatigued, as he waits for the monorail to arrive. The summer air carries with it a cool autumn breeze, the wind refreshing on his face. He closes his eyes, her image coming to mind unbidden. Every feature, from the arch of her eyebrows raised high in amazement, to the broad smile stretching her lips as they gazed at each other for the first time in five hundred years...It is something he will never forget, along with the memories of the short time they shared.

Noel squeezes his eyes, gritting his teeth to hold back the pain, as the train pulls into the station.

_xi._

5 months, 20 weeks, 140 days.

Yeul makes a habit of going out into the field across the road. The tall grasses, green and vibrant in the springtime, have long since run dry during the summer heat. Her own flower patch is beginning to brown, as the autumn air steadily becomes colder.

But the meadow still shows signs of life, the colorful fall blossoms growing sporadically among the weeds. She often sits, watching as children run among the vegetation, laughing blithely without a care in the world. In a way, she is reminded of her own childhood, of the days spent playing games outside during nice weather, and the long conversations held between two people who have no one in the world but each other to connect with.

_xii._

"You sit here every day, how come?"

Yeul looks up from the basket she is weaving, and into the innocent brown eyes of one of the children whose ball had rolled towards her.

"I'm waiting for someone," she answers with a soft smile and a slight tilt of her head.

"Where are they now?"

"He's looking for me."

The child seems thoughtful as he bends down to pick up his ball. "Do you think he'll find you?"

Yeul glances down at the grass mats on her lap, and her voice catches in her throat as she replies,

"I know he will."

_xiii._

A crisp wind is blowing as he gets off at the next stop. Noel feels weary as he continues his search, the long months spent travelling sapping away at his strength. As he questions the people in the town, he begins to feel the faintest glimmer of hope, as passersby confirm that they've seen the person he's asking about.

"She sits in the meadow a lot, weaving flower baskets," they tell him, as they point him in the direction of the field.

Noel hastens towards the area, adrenalin rushing through his veins, heart pounding wildly in anticipation. Months of travel and fruitless searching, and at last the end is in sight. He reaches the sun-drenched field, spotting her profile almost immediately, hunched over the long grass mats stretched across her lap, methodically bending them into shape the way she had been taught as a child.

"_Yeul!_"

_xiv._

His smile expands across his face as he cries out towards her, watching as she looks up in shock, incredulity plastered across her features, before her expression erupts into an effervescent smile, abandoning all else as she starts to run towards him...

_xv._

_7 months, 15 days, 38 minutes..._

Yeul flings herself into his open arms, wrapping her own around his waist. For a moment, time stands still. They hold one another, absorbing each other's warmth, each other's solidness. The reality of their meeting makes them both light headed and filled with elation.

"It's you, it's really you," Yeul buries her face in his chest, her hands fisting into the back of his shirt. A lump rises in her throat, constricting her voice, as she shakes her head, unable to continue talking.

Noel crushes her body against his own, one arm wrapped tightly around her back, the other resting against her head. "I finally found you..." his voice chokes with emotion, as he swallows down the tears of relief that sting at his eyes. He runs his fingers through her hair over and over again, as if unable to believe that she is real.

They sink to the ground, crying, laughing, and overflowing with the exhilaration of the moment, the disbelief that so many months of waiting, hoping, _yearning_ to be together, have finally drawn to a close.

_xvi._

"I knew you would come," Yeul says at last, once she regains control of her voice. Neither of them pay any mind to how long they had been sitting in the meadow, and Yeul has long since stopped keeping track.

Noel brushes her hair behind her ear, his gaze soft and tender. "I searched everywhere for you. I almost thought I wasn't going to find you."

Yeul pulls away for a moment, just enough so she could see his face. He was tanner than she remembered, somewhat thinner too, his sun-kissed cheeks evidence of his long travels.

Noel gently touches his forehead to hers, pausing for a moment just to breathe her in. "But, now that I finally have you...I am _never_ going to let you go again."

Yeul smiles softly, closing her eyes in contentment, the promise in his words filling her with unspeakable warmth.

_xvii._

"Noel," she says at last. "Let's go home."

_xviii._

_Home_.

The word hangs for a moment in the air between them, all their dreams and desires held in its simple expression.

Noel buries his face in her neck, his arms pressing gently into the small of her back as he quietly whispers, "I am home."

_~fin_


End file.
